those were the days...
Posted on 06/25/2017 8:56:12 AM PDT by ARGLOCKGUY
I haven't been inside a Sears store for more than 10 years, until Thursday, June 22. And, wow, did I learn a lot.
Mainly, I came away with a better understanding of why Sears Holdings Corp. is closing an additional 20 stores on top of the 245 it already planned to shutter. And why it has failed to turn a profit in 29 out of the last 37 quarters and seen same-store sales decline in 11 of the past 12 quarters.
I observed alienating treatment of a loyal customer at the store in Jersey City, N.J., which was also messy and uninviting inside.
When I came upon customer Stephanie Rosso, a resident of Jersey City, she was struggling with four employees to get a simple return transaction completed for a dryer she'd bought and sent back to the warehouse that day with the delivery man. Normally, getting a refund takes about two minutes tops.
those were the days...
My last experience with Sears was in the late 1990s.
I needed tires and went to Sears Automotive. With an appointment. Some of the details are fuzzy now, but I distinctly remember about an hour had passed since my car had been taken in for the tires to be put on my car. I had not seen one other living being for that hour, except for a customer who came in, waited about ten minutes until finally asking me if there was anyone about. She left. The phone (the old bell type) kept ringing incessantly and no one ever answered it.
Eventually I got so ticked off I barged right in and through the “no admittance-employees only” door to the work area. There were about four guys sitting back there eating and as comfortable as can be.
My car was on the rack. It was the ONLY car on the rack. After I vented, they put my old tires back on and refunded me for the new tires I had purchased.
I have never returned to Sears for any reason.
The recipe for major online success seems to elude old catalogers with a very few exceptions, which is strange because they are both the very same process with largely the same infrastructure.
Call to action is different, one vs. the other, that’s about the only big difference I can see, having been part of both. Online is click the link, buy now. Print is pick up the phone, buy now, or fill out the form, buy now. Little difference otherwise.
Online has tools and capabilities that catalogers could only dream about not much more than a decade ago, A/B splits to test copy and offer at the drop of a hat and as many as you want with negligible cost upfront, tracking of behavior to see exactly where a prospect lost interest and abandoned the whole thing, etc.
Sort of a mystery, really.
I only go to Sears to buy Craftsman tools. Much to my surprise, the last socket set I bought was made in China. I’m not going to buy “Made in China” tools at Craftsman prices. Now I buy my power tools at Home Depot and “Made in China” tools at Harbor Freight or Amazon. As for my local Sears, the morgue is a more hopping place.
Sears, J.C. Pennys, Montgomery Wards, each could have been forward thinking and become something like Amazon.
Instead they held on to their old 20th Century model, and melted down. Then someone else started from scratch and ate their lunch.
Sears and some other stores only have one big checkout location on each floor. However, it's probably almost empty and the people buying things are stuck in checkout.
When people have to pay almost $2000 a month for health insurance, there is no disposable income.
The amazing thing is, Sears and J.C. Penny’s had a robust mail order business at one time. Their catalogues were an inch and a half thick.
It was a natural for them to welcome the electronic age, create a digital version online and run with it.
They could have expanded their lines easily.
Instead they basically became an old closet, where you go to find yesterdays items, old bypassed styles and appliances.
The Sears people then were expert merchandisers from top to bottom. When Wall Street took over Sears, efficient and profitable merchandising went out the window and it was all downhill from then on.
Leni
I’m used to 1 on the credit card. And on something big the warranty the warranty. They seemed to have decided all the questions need an “are you sure” follow up, and $40 table top humidifiers are now “big” apparently.
I guess it’s just another example of a company becoming calcified and hidebound due to old procedures, turf wars and so many employees that they just tripped all over themselves when it came to a new paradigm. IBM, Kodak, same thing.
Back in 82 I applied for a store card because they offered one due to the birth of my first child.
The offer said even if you get turned down they would send you a small teddy bear. I never received anything back therefore I’ve never shopped at a Sears store except for one time when my husband wanted to buy a vacuum cleaner; this was before Amazon.
That same thing happened to me years ago.
Only I waited longer, about 20 minutes ... calling out for help and went to 4 or 5 empty registers.
Finally I went behind one of the registers and started pushing buttons on the cash register (I had no idea how it worked and had no intention of stealing money). After playing around on the cash register for a few minutes, someone finally appeared and asked me what I thought I was doing. I said “I’m trying to get someone’s attention ... it seems to have worked”.
Then I left without buying the item I wanted to buy.
I have not been in a Sears since and never plan to return.
I’m surprised people don’t just walk out of the store with their merchandise ... there seemed to be no one working there.
I have business associates with ties to Sears/Kmart, former insiders, former buyers, etc. Even as they’ve spiraled down it was big business to get linear feet on a retail fixture, up until maybe a year or so ago at which point replenishment seemed to fall off the wagon. Consensus opinion is that they’re done, just biding their time and selling off inventory.
It’s nearly impossible to find someone to help you at Lowe’s. I went there with the intention of buying a new range hood and waited in their appliance department for over 30 minutes. It wasn’t that they were helping someone else ... there was just no one there.
Home Depot is slightly better.
Craftsman had a policy, if it broke bring it back. Never had an issue. When that changed that policy, but prices remained the same, very bad idea. I can go to HD or Lowes and get tools cheaper and easier to return.
Been nice knowing ya Sears
I worked at Monkey Wards, in the hardware/paint department, shortly after they began importing their tools from China. I can't remember the brand name, but the American made tools rivaled the quality of Craftsman, but NOT the Chinese replacement tools. When someone would return a failed or broken tool, we'd walk them over to the tool on the shelf, trade the old tool for the new, and tell the person, "Have a nice day," doing the paperwork after the customer left.
They were often unhappy about the quality of the replacements.
Mark
That was page 502.
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